Author: Charles Zuber

“The modern building must be true to itself, logically transparent and virginal of lies or trivialities.” – Walter Gropius on architecture in the early part of the 20th century. Looking out of the bus window it is easy to see Brisbane as a city that likes to grow modern buildings, but it is hard to imagine how many of the recent buildings here would be admired by the Bauhaus architects today. Certainly the majority of recent builds might be described as influenced by modernity, but these are not welcomed and embraced as organic, pure forms by those who live...

Whilst the greening of cities, public transport, controlled building heights with open spaces are often, quite rightly, cited as desirable, we should add heritage to that list. And whilst that seems simply self evident enough, there is complexity in choosing what heritage is worth protecting. Once it was about preserving the inside and outside of chosen buildings, and maintaining them as small museums complete with a history that accompanied them, but what about today’s concerns ? One answer is that industrial workplaces might deserve a place in the narratives of Australia. Heritage buildings might best be saved, it was...

In Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation, Ezio Manzini asks us to consider a more significant way of understanding what is meant by design. In this book, design is for social innovation, and designers are to be understood as experts who work in such a way that everybody can be involved in design, and everybody is potentially engaged in collaborative life projects. Throughout the 200 pages, Ezio maps out his theories of design in chapters imbricated with case studies that exemplify his ideas. While Ezio acknowledges his Italian heritage, by stating that he hopes...

WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE : Printmakers at QCA. Reviewed by Dr. Charles Zuber. International Women’s Day On Tuesday, 8th March was a chance for printmakers to gather together for an exhibition at the Queensland College of Art’s Whitebox Gallery. The printmakers were also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Print Council of Australia. Women of Substance showed the work of 34 printmakers from Griffith University Print Club, Alumni, students and staff as well other invited artists from interstate and overseas. The title, Women of substance, allowed for a wide range of interpretations, but what the works on show had in...

The UQ Architecture Lecture Tues. 1 March. SLQ. State Library Queensland review by Dr. Charles Zuber. The first speaker for the 2016 lecture series hosted by UQ and the Queensland State Library was Moon Hoon. It turned out to be an inspiring evening and a great way to start the series. So, make sure you check out what’s on at the State Library. On Moon Hoons business card, he refers to himself as an architect, a designer and underneath that, is the descriptor “Space Tuning ”. A nice phrase which did turn out to suggest how we might understand...